This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 9-188984 filed on Jun. 30, 1997, the contents of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to an electronic camera, an electronic device, a transmission system, and a control method therefor. In particular, the present invention is suitably applied to an electronic mail system, but other applications are also possible.
Conventionally, there are electronic cameras, such as digital cameras (electronic still cameras) and the like, which are adapted to transfer picture data to personal computers or work stations.
In addition, electronic mail (hereinafter abbreviated to E-mail) is known as a system which permits personal computers or work stations to communicate text, audio, and picture data with each other over a computer network.
With the E-mail service, in order to send mail from a terminal, it is required to set the E-mail address of the location to which data is to be sent.
Conventionally, in setting the destination address on the terminal side, an address file, in which E-mail address data is stored associated with name data or items to be retrieved, is opened and the desired E-mail address data is specified. As an alternative, the E-mail address data is keyed in.
However, such a conventional address setting feature poses the following problems.
That is, since the E-mail address data consists of a relatively long character string that is made up by alphabetic characters, numerals, and symbols, the desired address data is difficult to find in the address book and much time is required to select and specify it. For keying in address data, key operations are troublesome and entry mistakes are easy to occur. Thus, difficulties are also involved in transferring picture data taken by a digital camera to a personal computer and then transmitting the picture data from the personal computer to a destination terminal by E-mail.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an electronic camera, an electronic device, a transmission system, and a control method, which permit picture data taken by the electronic camera to be transmitted to a destination terminal with ease and certainty.
According to an aspect of the present invention there is provided an electronic camera comprising: picture capturing means for capturing a picture of a subject; input means for inputting the destination address of a location to which picture data captured by the picture capturing means is to be transmitted; storage means for storing the picture data captured by the picture capturing means and the destination address data input by the input means so that they are associated with each other; and output means for externally outputting the picture data and its associated destination address stored in the storage means.
This arrangement allows the user to transmit a picture captured by the electronic camera to a desired destination terminal with ease and certainty.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided an electronic device comprising: receive means for receiving picture data and its associated destination address data indicating a destination terminal to which the picture data is to be transmitted; storage means for storing the picture data and its associated destination address data received by the receive means; and transmit means for transmitting the picture data stored in the storage means to the destination terminal on the basis of the destination address data stored in the storage means.
This arrangement allows the user to transmit a picture captured by the electronic camera to a desired destination terminal with ease and certainty.
According to still another aspect of the present invention there is provided a transmission system composed of an electronic camera and an electronic device in which the electronic camera comprises: picture capturing means for capturing a picture of a subject; input means for inputting the destination address data of a location to which picture data captured by the picture capturing means is to be transmitted; first storage means for storing the picture data captured by the picture capturing means and the destination address data input by the input means so that they are associated with each other; and output means for externally outputting the picture data and its associated destination address data stored in the first storage means, and the electronic device comprises: receive means for receiving picture data and its associated destination address data indicating a destination terminal to which the picture data is to be transmitted; second storage means for storing the picture data and its associated destination address data received by the receive means; and transmit means for transmitting the picture data stored in the second storage means to the destination terminal on the basis of the destination address data stored in the second storage means.
This arrangement also allows the user to transmit a picture captured by the electronic camera to a desired destination terminal with ease and certainty.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinbefore.